This following article is a PTR preview from the Brawler's Guild. Since this preview, the Guild has gone through several changes. Please read Wowhead's Brawler's Guild Guide for all the details that made it live to 5.1.

The PTR patch notes created some controversy yesterday when it was revealed that invitations to the Brawler's Guild would be quite exclusive--either via existing members or by purchasing one on the Black Market Auction House with gold. Edit: Since this was posted, Blizzard has added in an alternative method: having it drop from select Alliance/Horde NPCs.

To recap, the Brawler's Guild is an area for players to demonstrate their skill in soloing challenging bosses, gaining ranks within in the guild as they do so, in a "Fight Club" atmosphere.

There's been a few things added in this PTR patch--invitations, achievements, various NPCs--which we've covered below. In addition, spectators can no longer influence the outcome of a fight by throwing flowers or rotten fruit at players. To learn more about the Brawler's Guild, check out our look at Brawler's Guild consumables, rewards, and bosses, and our visual preview of the Alliance and Horde areas.

Invitations

The November 2nd Patch Notes stated that "Entry into the brawler’s guild is by invitation only. Invitations can be found on the black market auction house or by invitation from somebody within the guild." Currently, there are 10 Blood-Soaked Invitation available on the PTR BMAH. With the maximum bid on the BMAH being 1 million gold, it seems unlikely that one person could monopolize invites, but it still will be very exclusive at first.

The bits in red are copied over from Blizzard's own post--they're a different color to show what's specifically been added November 2nd. We know players usually associate red with things that are removed instead!

Today's news covers two aspects of WoW that are designed to be easily accessible for many players: Scenarios and LFR. We have a preview of a new scenario on the PTR, as well as a ton of blue posts discussing players' perceptions behind LFR.

Assault on Zan'vess

Recently, a new scenario was open for testing on the 5.1 PTR, Assault on Zan'vess. For everyone complaining that scenarios feel a bit easy, this one should be a welcome challenge. The mobs hit hard, pulling additional groups can be lethal, and coordination is actually required on bosses.

This scenario appears to change based on your faction, as Alliance players start off on their gunship and kill a Horde commander later on.

Stage 1: Join the Assault Players land on top of their faction's gunship, and are told to join in the assault by getting on one of the gyrocopters.

Stage 2: Defenses of Zan'vessYou're asked to fly over Zan'vess and destroy the sonic shield, which is maintained by several generators around the island. As your character makes loops around the island, you can bomb the control towers as well as shielding yourself from enemy fire. You'll also need to take down the Mantid protecting the control towers first.

Stage 3 Your group lands at the base of the island and fights their way to a Commander--for the Alliance, it was an orc. These groups of mobs are a bit deadly, and you're given explosive bombs that do damage and a knockback to help out.

Final Stage: Commander Tol'viss You'll fight this tricky Mantid commander, who both throws bombs and summons Mantid swarms as protection.

Blizzard on LFR

There's also been a flurry of blue posts on LFR yesterday, since many raiders feel forced to run LFR in addition to regular raids. Similar to the debates on whether dailies are mandatory a few weeks back, raiders of all sorts feel pressured to run LFR to get easy upgrades at the start of an expansion. These upgrades then help them in their actual Normal/Heroic progression, not to mention that LFR, at first glance, is an easy way to acquire Valor Points.

Zarhym and Draztal analyze what "forced to run LFR for progression" means in a series of blue posts, and offer some gearing and Valor Point alternatives.

Blizzard

Updated October 23

General

The Pandaren Campaign begins!

The conflict between the Horde and the Alliance has ignited a new series of daily quests along the shore of the Krasarang Wilds.

Players can visit their faction strongholds in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to begin the quest to summon their war fleets to the continent of Pandaria. (Please note: The Alliance version of this quest is not yet complete, but will still unlock the new missions and features).

Players will both valiantly defend their faction’s outpost and assault the opposing faction's headquarters.

Players can slay rival NPCs and opposing faction players along the shore to earn commissions that can be spent to upgrade their faction's base.

Look for strategic objectives to capture, including graveyards and towers. Commissions can be spent to recruit guards that will help protect this captured territory!

Players who are truly dedicated to their faction can spend their commissions on an item that will give their fellows an extra reputation group quest for the day. Horde players can speak with Ongrom Black Tooth, while Alliance players can contact Proveditor Grantley for details.

Banquet of the Steamer and Great Banquet of the Steamer now correctly provide Intellect to damage based casting classes. Healers will continue to gain Spirit from these foods. A cooking profession bag has been added, and can be purchased with Ironpaw Token from Nam Ironpaw. All mineral nodes will now despawn one minute after they are mined, even if items remain in them.

l's mana cost has been increased to match the Priest version, and its cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds.

The cast time of has been reduced to 2 seconds.

is once again granted to Brewmaster Monks and now costs 2 Chi to use.

is once again granted to Blood Death Knights, and now costs 30 Runic Power.

is once again granted to Protection Warriors, but now only provides a 30% increase to dodge.

is once again granted to Protection Paladins, and now costs 1 Holy Power.

The cooldown of provided by Symbiosis has been reduced to 5 minutes.

The duration of provided by Symbiosis now displays correctly as 4 seconds.

The Charred Glyph has been changed, and now increases the radius of Solar Beam to 10 yards (was 5 yards). The duration of Solar Beam has been reduced to 8 seconds.A new Minor Glyph has been added: Charred Glyph. This glyph reduces the radius of Starfall by 50%.

The Growl pet ability will no longer cause diminishing returns against bosses that are immune to its effect. The Glyph of Solace has been renamed to Glyph of Solace, and now causes both and Freezing Trap to remove all damage over time effects from the target. Glyph of Scattering has been removed. A new Major Glyph has been added: Glyph of Aimed Shot. This glyph allows Aimed Shot to be used while moving. Aspect of the Fox has been removed.Steady Shot, Cobra Shot, and Barrage can now always be cast on the move.Lynx Rush has been changed. Lynx Rush is now a bleed effect that causes damage every 3 seconds over a period of 15 seconds, and stacks up to 9 times.Bestial Wrath no longer grants Hunter pets immunity to crowd control effects, and instead now breaks existing crowd control effects when activated.

New Pet Ability: Water Jet. Water Jet channels a jet of frigid water at the target, dealing Frost damage over 4 seconds. Frostbolts cast by the pet's owner that hit the target while it is being blasted with icy water will grant a charge of Fingers of Frost This ability has a 24 sec cooldown (shared with Freeze) and a 1 second cast time.

Rain of Fire's damage over time will now hit every 1 second (was 2 seconds). The damage animation for the damage over time effect will no longer always display.

Conflagrate now generates Burning Embers. Destruction Warlocks have gained a new ability: . costs one Burning Ember. After a 3 second channeling period, will stun and knockback all burning targets within 10 yards of the caster. This ability has a 1 minute cooldown. Conflagrate now generates Burning Embers.Demonic Gateway's duration has been increased to 20 minutes, and it will no longer despawn if the Warlock moves too far away.

The silence provided by Charred Glyph is no longer effective against players.

Pet Battles

A new item has been introduced that can be used to upgrade the quality of Battle Pets: Battle-stones. Pets over level 15 upgraded in this way can lose up to two levels in the process.

Battle-stones are available in two basic types, general purpose Battle-stones that can be used to upgrade the quality of any pet, and family specific Battle-stones, which can only be used to upgrade pets of a specific pet family.

Players will have a very small chance to obtain a general purpose Flawless Battle-stone after winning a match against wild pets; defeating higher level opponents increases the chances of obtaining a stone. These valuable items are not soulbound, and can be sold on the Auction House.

Family specific Flawless Battle-stones can be found in the Sack of Pet Supplies obtained from performing Pet Trainer quests, and are Bind on Pickup.

General purpose Polished Battle-stones can be purchased for 1000 Justice Points.

Pet Journal

The quality of each pet is now visible in its slot in the Pet Journal.

Pets can now be filtered by name, type, rarity and level, and filters will remain in place each time the Pet Journal is viewed.

It is now possible to search locations in the Pet Journal. For example, searching “Westfall” will display all the Battle Pets that can be found in Westfall.

Several classic Raid bosses now have a chance to drop new Battle Pets. The new pets can be obtained from bosses in Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, and Naxxramas. Abilities that have been used will now continue to cool down for pets when they are not the active pet in a battle. Right clicking a pet's portrait will now offer the option to look it up in the Pet Journal. Players can now keep up to 650 pets. Battle Pet tooltips will now display whether a pet is owned, and how many pets of that type are owned. Pet Quality is now displayed in battles, and will be visible on portraits, names and tooltips. The level of battle pets in a zone can now be seen on the map, and it’s now possible to see the strength of wild pets relative to your team at a glance. Backline pets now display debuffs affecting them as well as the remaining duration of these effects. The experience multiplier obtained by all seven Grand Master pet trainers in Pandaria has been increased to x5 from x3.5. The experience multiplier obtained by defeating Pet Trainers Julia Stevens, Old MacDonald, Zunta, and Dagra the Fierce has been reduced to x2.5 from x3.5. Macros have been added that allow for summoning random pets and random favorite pets. The achievement Taming the World now awards the Safari Hat, which increases pet experience gained from Pet Battles by 10%. Pets previously removed from the Safari achievements have been added back to the criteria of those achievements now that they're back in the wild. The I Choose You achievement has been added for defeating Grand Master Aki. The reward for this achievement is gold. Players that defeat Aki the Chosen at the culmination of the Battle Pet quest lines can now follow a new line of Battle Pet quests and associated daily quests that allows players to battle against Pandaren spirits. A new Master Pet Tamer offering daily quests has been added to the Darkmoon Faire. Completing quests for the new trainer will offer the chance to acquire a new pet: the Darkmoon Eye. The Dragon Kite can now be used in Pet Battles. The Imperial Silkworm and Imperial Moth pets can now be created by Tailors. A number of pets that could previously only be found accompanying other pets into battle can now be found roaming the world. A number of new capturable pets can be found in the world from pet families that were once more sparsely populated. Two new Battle Pets now roam Darkmoon Island waiting to be caught. Fixed an issue that would prevent some pets captured in Pet Battles from correctly saving their skin color once added to the Pet Journal. Player versus Player Pet Battles now award more experience. Large plants and bushes in the environment that interfered with visibility during Pet Battles while now fade out of view during the match. Two new Battle Pets now roam Darkmoon Island waiting to be caught. Fixed a bug where the Gazelle would join pet battles.

Raids, Dungeons and Scenarios

Raid groups are no longer necessary to enter pre-Mists of Pandara raid dungeons.

Cooldown timers greater than 5 minutes will now reset between attempts on Challenge Mode dungeons.

Scenarios

Scenarios now include Dungeon Finder queue features, including leaders, backfill, vote to kick, and deserter debuffs. Roles are still not required.

UI

Justice, Valor, Honor and Conquest Point quartermasters are now signified by new minimap icons.

A new banner will appear when a player is subjected to an effect that causes them to lose control of their character. The effect that caused the loss of control and remaining duration will be displayed. Configuration options are available in the “Combat” section of the “Interface Options" menu.

A search bar has been added to the mount section of the Mount and Pet Journal.

The Mount and Pet Journal remembers which tab you were last using.

Brawler's Guild

Underground fighting rings have sprung up in Stormwind City and Orgrimmar that will give brawlers who have their mitts on an invitation a chance to earn bragging rights by testing their solo PvE mettle against some of the toughest creatures found in World of Warcraft.

Players will prove their skill, and increase their rank with the Brawler's Guild, as they win matches against some of the most difficult solo encounters in World of Warcraft.

As their Brawler's Guild rank increases, players will unlock additional rewards and activities within the Brawler’s Guild.

Brawlers on a realm will gather together into the blood spattered ring to watch as their peers face down their own opponents. They can watch the battles in progress to learn from hardened Brawler's Guild veterans as they wait for their own turn to fight.

New Icons

This following article is a PTR preview from the Brawler's Guild. Since this preview, the Guild has gone through several changes. Please read Wowhead's Brawler's Guild Guide for all the details that made it live to 5.1.

Since our visual preview of the Brawler's Guild last week, many more features have been added on the PTR. Players can queue up for brawls, gain ranks, purchase consumables, and loot rewards.

The Brawler's Guild has set up fighting rings set up in Stormwind and Orgrimmar where players engage in solo PvE challenges. Winning increases your rank within the Brawler's Guild, making you eligible for more and more rewards. The areas are set up so that players fight in a central pit while spectators are encouraged to watch on the sides.

Gaining Rank

The Brawler's Guild is a bit livelier now on the PTR. The announcers are in full swing and a variety of champions were unleashed on players. We watched C'thun, Dungeon Master Vishas, some undead spirits, a large dinosaur, and a Necromancer beat up Alliance players as well some elite Horde NPCs. We tried out a few ranks ourselves, and it seems you get ~250 reputation per completed fight, with 4-5 fights per rank.

The announcer was having a great time introducing the new NPCs:

Also entering the arena: Goredome! He WILL attempt to gore you. With his dome.

Also entering the arena: The Dark Summoner. Wow, he doesn't even have a real name. Spooky!

The opposition includes some of Gnomeregan's finest…although they've all seen better days. It's the leper gnome quintet!

Now this is what I'm talking about! More dinosaurs, please! It's King Kulaka!!

We have a special guest today: the always-endearing, ever-resilient, Millhouse Manastorm! Stonecore was merely a setback!

From what we encountered, each encounter required some situational awareness as opposed to outgearing it and burning the boss down--there were abilities that could one shot players, some interruptible casts, projectiles to dodge, and kitable phases. Stuns and self-healing proved very useful.

The conflict between the Alliance and Horde is really heating up in 5.1. In the recent PTR patch, vendors were added in Krasarang Wilds that sell zone-specific PvP items, and we datamined a few more quest chains charting the story developments in this area. (Edit: This article was updated 11/28 with finalized Commendation items and prices.)

Krasarang Wilds PvP Rewards

As you quest in Krasarang's PvP areas, you'll loot commendations from enemy NPCs and players. These commendations are only acquired from looting--they are not quest rewards. Players can turn them into items that buff other players, increase their base's defenses, and even give players additional reputation quests. Proveditor Grantley and Ongrom Black Tooth sell these items.

These items are dropped by Horde NPCs and players. They can be turned into Proveditor Grantley for items that reinforce your base, buff players, or offer additional quests.

Legendary Quests

To proceed with the legendary questline, Wrathion wants you to hit Revered with The Black Prince by killing the opposing faction in Krasarang Wilds. This seems like it will take a while, so you might as well get your 5.1 dailies done while working on it.